An embodiment of the invention relates to funding customer accounts of an online merchant by means of calling one or more special telephone numbers. Other embodiments are also described.
Many different goods and services are provided by merchants that conduct business via the Internet. However, these goods and services are often (but not always) provided free of charge, and the merchants are supported by incidental revenues such as fees collected from advertisers whose advertisements are displayed to users of the free goods and services. These incidental revenues are often insufficient to support higher-value goods and enhanced services, yet a merchant may wish to offer these improved goods and services to improve its competitive position vis à vis other merchants. Thus, an Internet merchant faces the problem of obtaining revenue sufficient to defray his operating costs and to provide a reasonable profit or return on investment.
One source of revenue is receiving direct payments from the users of the goods and services. However, users are often reluctant to establish new business relationships with Internet merchants because of security concerns, i.e. users may not wish to disclose their true names, addresses, or credit card information for fear that they will be inundated with junk mail and unsolicited commercial e-mail (“UCE” or “spam”), or that they will become the victims of fraudulent credit card activity. Also, in some countries, consumers have not become accustomed to purchasing Internet services by credit card, and so an alternate payment means is desirable.